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Remembering Rwanda

Yesterday, in the Christianity in Culture class that I teach at ACU, we read the first part of Lee Camp’s Mere Discipleship. At the beginning of his book, Camp discusses the horrendous civil war that took place in Rwanda in 1994 (the triggering event occurred 16 years ago yesterday, April 6). In a period of 100 days, over 800,000 people were slaughtered during tribal warfare between the Hutus and the Tutsis. What made this butchery all the more disturbing is the fact that over 90% of the population of Rwanda claimed some form of Christianity.

I wrote a few posts about tribalism in the past. While this tribalism is more apparent, with Hutu Christians and Tutsi Christians murdering one another, it exists in many forms around the world. Until our first loyalty is to Jesus Christ and His Kingdom, we will allow ourselves to mistreat brothers in Christ in the name of politics and nationalism.

None of that is possible when we recognize that we are one body. We are members of the same holy nation. Our allegiance is to her and her alone. (Remember that allegiance comes from the Old French liege, the term a vassal used to address his lord. When we pledge allegiance to someone or something, we are recognizing their lordship over us.)

May there never be another Rwanda, not only from the point of view of humanity in general, but from the perspective of God’s Kingdom. May His subjects come to see that we belong to Him, with all human loyalties falling far behind. May we truly be the body of Christ, the holy nation, the people of God.

The American Civil War…professing Christians killing professing Christians because loyalty to the state has replace loyalty to the brotherhood of Jesus Christ and his body… and there are some smells in the air that this sort of misplaced loyalty is taking place again.